What Level Ukulele Player Are You?

Note: You might be a beginner in one aspect of your learning and intermediate or advanced in other areas. This is especially true if you have experience playing other instruments.

You might be an intermediate player as far as chords go but a beginner for scales and improvisation. A great strummer but just starting to explore fingerstyle. So one level doesn't fit all players or all areas study.

This is where an experienced teacher can help out. It's sometimes hard to evaluate where you are in your development. An outside set of ears and eyes can assist in determining a right course of development, depending on your goals.

Teaching yourself can be frustrating at times. One problem with going the self-taught route is the glut of information available on-line - even right here on my site. There's no one controlling the flow of information, no one to guide you from the basic foundation skills and knowledge needed to for me advanced concepts for any particular topic. Patience is paramount with yourself and crucial — there’s nothing in the world that someone hasn’t managed to learn, starting from right where you are now. And, it's probably written down somewhere, either in a book or accessible on-line.

For someone new to ukulele start with this series of weekly lessons that will help you create a core foundation for future development.

Self-assessment is typically hard to do when you don't know what there is to study or how to approach organizing all to possibilities material. It's not until you get a bit further along in your development that you can determine what is needed. However - there is one area that is hard to do on your own. And that is technique.

For technique you need someone that understands the mechanics involved and more importantly can communicate what is required. Think of the parallel to sports coaching and how it's typically not the great players that are the great coaches and managers. This holds true for players. It's the rare few that can handle both.

Where Does One Start?

Get a Ukulele - If you are anywhere with in the Philadelphia, PA area of the USA - stop by our family run music store Funky Frets. We have the largest selection of ukuleles in the area and I do know a bit about the ukulele and can hook you up with just what you're looking for to get started.

Get in Tune!!! - Best bet is to initially just get one of the many available clip-on electronic tuners and learn the names of the open strings. In C tuning they are: G C E A from your nose to your toes.

You're First Ukulele Chord - Every ukulele play learns C as their first chord - or - at least they should as it's the most common chord played.

Learning Ukulele The reason for this site...

It can seem an overwhelming task to learn any musical instrument, even one deemed to be as simple as the ukulele. However, with the right plan of attack and taking inventory of what you might already know – It can be done and is a lot of fun in the process.

I've been asked more than once to put together a plan of attack for getting started and growing beyond the basics. There is no better recipe for success that a proven plan and organization for development. That is actually where a good, organized teacher able to communication is needed. These lesson pages are intended to provide material for developing your ukulele skills and expanding your music knowledge.

Music..., regardless of your
instrument, involves parts or all of these elements:
Melody,
Harmony and
Rhythm. Then putting it all together in
Songs, Compositions, Arrangements, Orchestration, etc...

Most players have a few holes or gaps in the music knowledge and technical skills, some more than others. Being able to identify those is a first step to improving, updating and developing your skills.

I like to use the analogy of a Recipe. If you want to bake a cake, you need a specific list of ingredients to have the cake turn out and taste good. If you are missing of few ingredients or don't know how to use an ingredient or substitute ingredients, you run to the store and get what you need and learn how to use them. A song is a recipe; it tells you what notes, chords, rhythms, style, etc. you need to create a performance or learn the song.

NOTE: All my material has been developed, refined and used over the past 30 plus years of study, private teaching with hundreds of students and performing. And It Does WORKS!!!. There's a plan for everyone and more than one way to approach any topic.

Here are some of the typical areas of study and recommendations to on-line lessons and books to check out. And, not always mine.

Technique is the manner and degree of which one employs the technical skills of an endeavor. For ukulele it's the physical control and coordination needed to play or sing. It involves position, efficiency of motion and effort, as well as exercises and drills to develop specific physical skills.

Reading is the ability to reproduce music from written notation. It includes five phases; note recognition / alternate note locations, rhythm recognition, fingering considerations, communication terminology and interpretation. It's actually somewhat easy on ukulele and opens your musical world to all kinds of music - not just TAB.

Ear Training is the development of the active and passive capacity to relate to music aurally. It includes the ability to recognize melodic and harmonic intervals, chords, chord progression, rhythm, melody and harmony.

Just browsing over both books, they look fantastic! I'm a guitarist and uke player for over 25 years and was thinking about writing a ukulele book but you've already written what I think are the best, most comprehensive and thorough books I've ever seen for the instrument. I just might end up buying every book you've written and I'll be giving my highest recommendation for your books to my friends and students. Thank you so much for taking the time to write such great books! — Peter Rhee

Aloha, Curt, All I can say is WOW! What you have accomplished is simply incredible! All the best — Glen Hirabayashi, The Aloha Boys

Folks, if you haven't stopped by Curt's site, do so right now! ..And get his books, they are fantastic. This guy knows his stuff and is able to pass it along too. — Alan Johnson Proprietor, The 4th Peg

I can highly recommend Curt's Uke books — I have four of them and they are excellent. — fatveg — Portland

Thanks for visiting and checking out the site!

Content is added and updated almost daily - so check back often.

LearningUkulele.com has one of the largest collections of lessons, songs, and TABS, luthiers, ukulele builders, ukulele festival and club information, and, ukulele links on the web. I’ve been on the ®Internet since the early 1990's and This site just never stops growing!!!

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